T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), the company formerly contracted to clean the JBS plant in Marshalltown, recently announced a mass layoff of 125 employees effective Aug. 15 after JBS severed its relationship with PSSI over widespread allegations of child labor at slaughterhouses in other states. According to a JBS spokesperson, a total of 76 former PSSI workers have transitioned into employment with JBS Sanitation, which will essentially perform the same duties.

Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), a company formerly contracted to clean the JBS pork processing plant in Marshalltown, has announced that it will lay off 125 workers effective Aug. 15, but a majority of them have transferred over to similar jobs with the newly created JBS Sanitation Company.

Nikki Richardson, a corporate communications specialist for JBS, confirmed the company had cut ties with PSSI over widespread allegations of child labor at meatpacking plants across the country. PSSI was fined $1.5 million as the result of a Department of Labor (DOL) investigation that uncovered “102 children as young as 13 working hazardous overnight jobs cleaning slaughterhouses in eight states,” including some unaccompanied minors who had entered the U.S. by crossing the southern border, according to a February NBC News report.

Richardson added that a total of 76 employees — 64 hourly team members and 12 managers — have successfully transitioned from PSSI to JBS Sanitation.

“In light of the troubling allegations that have occurred in the food sanitation sector, JBS USA has made the decision to create a company that can provide the highest levels of food safety and quality assurance, while also adopting the same high standards for compliance and employment verification that we adhere to in the hiring of our own JBS USA workforce,” JBS USA CEO Wesley Batista Filho said in a press release dated May 3.

According to the findings from the DOL inquiry, 13 total plants were assessed penalties — including JBS locations in Greeley, Colo., Worthington, Minn. and Grand Island, Neb. — but none of them were in Iowa. The Grand Island plant, with 27 affected minors, received the largest single fine at $408,726, and the Worthington plant, with 22 affected minors, was the third highest at $333,036.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1149 President Roger Kail said about 90 percent of the workers employed by the new JBS Sanitation have opted to join the union, which he considered a huge improvement over PSSI, a non-union company. Their base pay is now $21.50 an hour as opposed to $19.75 at PSSI.

“I think it’s great that they’re organized. I mean, cleaning the plant in the middle of the night is dangerous work, and they need somebody to represent them, although JBS is one of the better employers to work with,” Kail said. “Those are great jobs with great benefits… This is life changing for them.”

According to Kail, PSSI is also offering its remaining workers at other locations a “card check” option for organizing, which stipulates that employees sign authorization cards stating they want a union, the cards are submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and if more than 50 percent of the employees submitted cards, the NLRB requires the employer to recognize the union.